Conservative Values and Orthodox Judaism

The growing community leans ever more towards political conservatism.

During the run-up to the dramatic election just concluded, I was invited to attend an event to meet the Republican National Committee’s recently appointed director of faith engagement, Chad Connelly. In the course of his presentation that afternoon, Mr. Connelly remarked that he did not understand how anybody who believed in the principles of biblical morality could possibly vote for the Democrats, as presently constituted.

Precisely.

The American system of government is predicated upon the assumption that there is a civil society consisting primarily of self-disciplined, self-restrained people, adhering to a broadly agreed set of moral principles inculcated not through any act of government, but rather through private, religious institutions.

Though the Founding Fathers, prudently and shrewdly building on their experiences and knowledge of the English system, refused to establish any particular religion, they nonetheless recognized the vital nature of religion in ordering men’s affairs. For example, John Adams, the second president of the United States, said, “Our Constitution was made only for a Moral and Religious People. We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.” Because such a government would be, inevitably, a totalitarian police state.